Damn I am jealous of your life….I said to a girl I was chatting up during a recent work assignment. Why, You know nothing about my life? she quickly replied with a laugh. It was not really her day-to-day life I was jealous of, it was her free spirit and her ability and willingness to travel. It was a passion that in recent years has all but been killed due to my marriage, house, and work.
The week went on, and i found myself on a slippery slope falling for an adventurous, beautiful girl, 10 years my junior and with me being married. Emotionally it really took a toll staying true to my values, but the trauma did however break down the barriers of reality and responsibility causing me to question all of what I felt to be the norms of my existence. I wondered why I did not eat meat, why I was back in school, why I did what I did for work, why i did not accept other views…..but most importantly why I did not aspire to travel anymore. It was a major shock to my system, one I am still recovering from. I was a shell of my once adventurous self, now a cautious and scared eunuch with no direction or ambition.
In the end, after a long episode of lashing out and hating everything including myself, I came to terms with what was important, my wife, my family, my health, and my freedom. If I had those, I was set. With this being a travel blog, lets focus our attention there. What had this girl done that had been so great as to make me so jealous? To send me on a path of self discovery? She had been the example of the freedom of what I had longed for so long, she remarked about the Christmas fairs of Germany, exploring Europe, hanging out in India, and learning to scuba in Thailand. As she described these travels my mind filled with wanderlust, a desire to go and experience the German Christmas fairs with mulled cider myself. To sit in Parisian cafes with coffee and chocolate croissants. To live amongst the raw humanity and feel the spiritualism of India and finally swim in the emerald oceans of the far east. I also began to dream again of my own desires, to ride my motorcycle through central and south America, to paddle down the east coast, to hike the alps, to spend a summer exploring Iceland and so much more…..
So the week finally ended, we went our separate ways. I was an emotional mess, and out of impulse I booked a trip within a week to Peru to hike to Macchu Picchu, and last I heard she is on her way to New Zealand after touring the national parks in the west. To each their own adventure…but we all need things to keep us going.